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About Michael J. Miller

Miller, who was editor-in-chief of PC Magazine from 1991 to 2005, authors this blog for PC Magazine to share his thoughts on PC-related products. No investment advice is offered in this blog. All duties are disclaimed. Miller works separately for a private investment firm which may at any time invest in companies whose products are discussed in this blog, and no disclosure of securities transactions will be made.

Disney's Iger: Big Opportunity in Clouds, Tablets, SmartPhones

During the All Things Digital conference this morning, Disney CEO Robert Iger said the move to new technology represents a huge opportunity
for companies like Disney, because it gives them more ways to distribute
content, and he said this will only improve in the future. He claimed that while there is
no question it provides challenges to old business models, they weren't
going to last anyway.

He noted that when he last talked at this conference seven years ago, the movie business was mature and moving slowly, with the last big
change having been the development of VHS and later DVD. Since then,
Netflix, iTunes, and other services have gained the same potential as the home
video market. And like the VHS market, Iger thought the
new business was mostly going to be incremental additions.

He focused how in global markets, smartphones, and tablets will become
particularly important, as most of those markets don't have as many TVs
as in the U.S.

He said good things about almost all the cloud service vendors, adding that Disney views Netflix positively as it is a distribution model that
provides users with a good experience for getting the company's
content. He also said good things about Hulu, saying it has
significant potential and is also important in helping the dynamic of
the studio's relationship with other forms of content distributions.When asked by the Journal's Kara Swisher about a rumored Disney branded online video distribution system, Iger said he thought Disney had the opportunity and the brand to do this, and revealed that such a system is being built with Disney.com. He said there would be a subscription services, as well as advertising and pay-per-view offerings. He then talked about re-focusing Disney.com around video and games.

In response to questions about Apple's upcoming iCloud announcement, he didn't discuss specifics, but was very positive towards the concept of cloud streaming content. He said one of the impediments to consumers buying things digitally was a concern about storage space. He insisted that Disney doesn't have a particular relationship with Apple and said good things about services with Amazon, Microsoft, Netflix and others in addition to iTunes.

But he said he thought there was still much untapped potential in all the digital platforms and was very bullish about smartphones. But he noted that traditional platforms were still "monetizing" much more quickly, noting the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie sold $700 million worth of tickets in the past week.

He explained that content business was getting harder, as consumers have more options these days, and this was impacting home video, because more people are deciding they do not need to own the movies. But he said that while the home theater experience was improving, the big screen in movie theaters would remain a very different experience.

On 3D, he said it "was way too early to write 3D's epitaph" but the technology needed to be used carefully, in the right film and in the right way technologically and for the story. He talked about releasing a version of The Lion King in 3D this fall, saying it was "more than a gimmick."

He also talked about building a new Disneyland in Shanghai and creating a more personalized experience in the company's Orlando theme parks, such as reserving ride time.

On gaming, he maintained that the company still believed in the market but had made some mistakes by focusing too much on consoles, and he said the company had bought Playdom to address social and casual gaming.

On social, he claimed about 180 million people were members of various Disney groups on Facebook, which was very important. He said that Disney had no interest in competing with Facebook but is convinced there is room for a family-friendly community along the lines of Club Penguin. But later he assured that the company would have to be very convinced it could do a great job in providing the right experience for the Disney brand, so as of now, the company was not close to launching a Disney branded social site.

Answering audience questions, he agreed with the notion that consumers should be able to move the digital content they buy among various cloud providers.

He said the best way to fight piracy is to have product available legally in a well-timed, well-priced way. But when asked about restrictions in outputting HD content from the iPad to a TV, he said copy-protection rules were still important in preventing piracy.

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